New Zealand's 'grave concern' at the mass detention and treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China is now on the parliamentary record, in a move likely to involve some form of retaliation from Beijing
Parliament has unanimously declared its grave concern about “severe human rights abuses” in China’s Xinjiang province, after efforts by some MPs to declare a genocide were stymied.
The motion is nonetheless likely to attract the attention, and ire, of the Chinese government following similar declarations from Western nations this year.
The Government has come under pressure at home and abroad to speak out more strongly against the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, with claims about the detention of at least one million Uyghurs in internment camps.
On Wednesday, ACT Party deputy leader Brooke van Velden put forward a motion asking Parliament to agree “that this House is gravely concerned about the severe human rights abuses taking place against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and that it call on the Government to work with the United Nations, international partners, and to work with all relevant instruments of international law to bring these abuses to an end”.
The motion as originally drafted by van Velden called on Parliament to state its belief that Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang were “suffering crimes against humanity and genocide”.
However, Parliament’s business committee watered down the wording to instead express grave concern about “possible severe human rights abuses” - reportedly after objections from the Labour Party - although the word ‘possible’ was subsequently removed. The full speeches in the House are here
Speaking to the House, van Velden said it was “vital for our democracy, for our conscience, and for our position in the world” for Parliament to debate the treatment of Uyghurs by Chinese officials.
"Genocide does not require a war, it does not need to be sudden. It can be slow and deliberate and that is what is happening here.”
“Some people think it is brave for our Parliament to debate something the Chinese Communist Party may disagree with - think about that for a moment.
“We are elected by the people of New Zealand to debate freely and fearlessly, just so long as we don't offend the Chinese Communist Party - that is what it would have meant to not have this debate.”
However, van Velden said “only half this debate” was being held after the removal of the references to genocide, wording which the British Parliament had unanimously adopted last month.
“I started with the same motion as the British, then had to dilute and soften it to gain the approval of New Zealand's governing party.”
There was voluminous evidence from multiple, credible sources to indicate a genocide was taking place, she said, with a mass imposition of contraceptive devices upon Uyghur women and forced sterilisations.
"Genocide does not require a war, it does not need to be sudden. It can be slow and deliberate and that is what is happening here.”
Defending the Government’s opposition to the use of the term ‘genocide’, Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta said it was “the greatest of international crimes” and a formal determination should only be reached “following a rigorous assessment on the basis of international law”.
New Zealand had never made an independent determination of genocide, instead relying on international bodies’ judicial findings in the cases of Nazi Germany, Cambodia and Rwanda.
Mahuta said the Government had consistently called on China to respect the rights of the Uyghur people since reports of large-scale extrajudicial detentions began in 2018, and believed the United Nations needed meaningful, unfettered access to assess the situation in Xinjiang.
National Party trade spokesman Todd Muller said New Zealand was known for its willingness to “walk softly among the hard paths of geopolitics” but had a reputation for speaking with its own voice.
“We do not seek to grandstand, but neither do we shirk from uncomfortable conversations. And today, this House speaks in one voice with our concerns about severe human rights abuses in China.”
Muller said it was a basic human right for people to feel safe in their homes, to have freedom of religious expression, and “to identify with a cultural tradition that best reflects their whakapapa and turangawaewae”.
“We are very concerned that this is not a reality for the Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities. Today is about raising our concerns, respectfully, but directly to our Chinese counterparts.”
Green Party global affairs spokeswoman Golriz Ghahraman said her party unequivocally condemned the atrocities being suffered by the Uyghur minority in Xjinjiang, and regretted that the final motion had been “to put it mildly, watered down”.
"It is important the words that we use in condemnation of what is happening, at the scale that it's happening, with the systemicity that is happening in Xinjiang province in China, and at the hands of any government that treats its minorities with persecution and with what we know is what amounts to torture, what amounts to forcible sterilisation with children being removed, and what we know the numbers are, which is approaching well over a million."
Trade concern 'morally indefensible'
It was “stunningly callous…[and] absolutely morally indefensible” for Labour and National MPs to have referred to the possible trade ramifications as a consideration in whether or not they would allow the motion to be put.
Parliament’s declaration needed to be followed by meaningful action, Ghahraman said.
“We want action, not just words, we owe the victims action, and we owe victims across the globe that same condemnation and action.”
Ghahraman attempted to have the original references to genocide reinstated, but her amendment was not put to the House, apparently due to a procedural error.
Te Paati Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said her party was also concerned at the removal of the genocide wording, saying: “We need to be calling out these atrocities for what they are, wherever they are happening in the world.
“We will continue to advocate for indigenous peoples and fight racism and bigotry, in all its forms. We stand in solidarity with all indigenous and oppressed peoples, right around the world.”
